1.Introduction

The following document aims to identify repository sources of relevance to the UK Higher Education Engineering community. Currently available and potential repository sources and their means of interoperability (e.g. OAI-PMH, Z39.50, SRW) are identified. The purpose of the listing is not to provide a comprehensive list of all worldwide repositories, but is rather an attempt to identify the most significant repositories of relevance to engineering and to provide examples of repositories via type and coverage. Ultimately the listing will be used to to identify sources that can be included in a pilot subject based engineering repository cross search service and to identify potential sources which may be approached and encouraged to expose their repository collections.

The document firstly addresses background issues such as the broad repository landscape, repository definitions and typologies, the methodology employed in the study before presenting a listing of repository sources relevant to engineering. The listing itself comprises of two major sections: available/potential engineering repository sources and available/potential engineering metadata repository sources (see section 2.2 for definitions of these). The implications of the findings resulting from this work are discussed in a separate document entitled Engineering Digital Repositories Landscape Analysis and Implications for Perx.

The listing is dynamic in nature and suggestions of further sources are welcomed.

2. Background

2.1. Digital Repositories - The broad landscape

The importance of digital repositories for the academic community is increasingly being recognised. Heery
and Anderson
(2005) has provided a selective review of current activity which shows steady, if patchy, growth. In the UK, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Digital Repositories Programme has initiated a programme of work to assist deployment of digital repositories within the learning and research communities. Elsewhere, a recent OECD Report (OECD, 2005) recognises open access archives and repositories as being a major recent development in scholarly communication. In the USA, the case for institutional repositories was made some time ago (Crow, 2002), and significant advances are being made. A more recent report from the National Library of New Zealand makes the case for New Zealand research institutions joining the global research community through the establishment of Institutional Repositories (Rankin, 2005).

2.2. Defining 'Repository' Sources

‘Digital repositories like digital libraries, mean many things to many people’ (Peters 2002). For some a repository is simply “a central place where data is stored and maintained” (Wikipedia). Heery and Anderson (2005) suggests that a repository is differentiated from other digital collections (e.g. directories, catalogues, databases) by the following characteristics;

It is important to note that repositories may or may not support ‘open access’ i.e. they may, or may not, be freely available.

Open access repositories have the following characteristics;

The repository must provide open access to its content.

The repository must provide open access to its metadata for harvesting.

For the purposes of this review it is useful to distinguish between a repository as defined above and a ‘metadata repository’. A metadata repository being defined as “a database of data about data (metadata)” (Wikipedia August 2005) i.e. without the actual content itself.

These definitions are of course not entirely clear cut. For example, institutional repositories are often hybrids between true repositories (with actual content) and metadata repositories (with only metadata). Equally, one could pose the question as to whether commercial publishers who offer full text of articles to subscribers, and abstracts only to non subscribers, have ‘closed access repositories' or 'metadata repositories'.

In this review, for purposes of clarity, we have elected to attempt to separate ‘repository’ and ‘metadata repository’ sources.

Heery
and Anderson
(2005) suggest a simple typology of repositories; by content type, by coverage, by primary functionality and by target user group. This typology is represented in Table 1 in a slightly modified form [Modifications - addition of 'Multimedia' and 'Assessment Materials' categories, combination of preprints, postprints and full text original publications in 'Research Outputs' category, and combination of raw and derived research data into 'Research Data' Category].

A modified/expanded version of this typology is used for the purposes of this listing. Categories of specific relevance to engineering such as Technical Reports, Standards and Patents have been added where appropriate.

Note that many of the above categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive and repositories could potentially be placed in a number of categories. For clarity, sources are listed only once in what is deemed to be the most appropriate category and cross references are provided.

2.3. Issues Relating to Identification of Repository Sources

A number of issues prove to be relevant to the identification of repository sources. Including:

2.3.1. Differing views as to what constitutes a ‘Repository’?
There are varying opinions as to exactly what constitutes a repository (as alluded to above) which clearly have effects on the scope of any listing. In this study we have taken a broad view of repository sources and have included both ‘repositories’ and ‘metadata repositories’, and have attempted to present these as separate categories within the listing.

2.3.2. Limitations of Currently Available OAI Registries.
As discussed by Shreeves et al (2005) nearly all currently available OAI registries suffer from a number of shortcomings. “Probably foremost is that the registries typically maintain very sparse records about the individual repositories, usually nothing other than flat lists of base URLs and possibly the repository name.” There is usually no means to determine the relevance and coverage of repositories without resorting to time-consuming analysis via use of tools such as the OAI repository explorer. Clearly there is a need for better collection level descriptions, as is being proposed and developed by projects such as OpenDoar.

A second serious shortcoming of currently available registries is that of completeness. They are typically populated by self-registration or via community based efforts, and as a result are not complete authoritative lists.

2.3.3. Lack of subject classification/categorisation.
Many potential repository sources cover a range of subject areas yet have no form of subject classification or categorisation. Determining the relevance of such sources from a subject perspective therefore becomes difficult.

The initial means of identifying metadata repository sources involved the revisiting and updating of work previously undertaken as part of the Subject Portals Project (SPP). Part of the work of SPP involved identifying a number of possible target collections of relevance to engineers for the purpose of setting up a subject based cross search service.

The eBank UK project has investigated issues surrounding the provenance and use/re-use of original research data, initially in the area of chemistry. An eBank pilot archive has been produced utilising OAI-PMH. Phase two of the project (2005 - 2006) involves expansion of the subject areas covered, including Engineering.http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/ebank-uk/

The CCLRC Data Portal project aims to develop the means for scientists to explore distributed data sources, discover the data they need and retrieve relevant data sets through one interface which is independent of the data location.
Though aimed at scientists, some of these data sources may be of use in engineering.

DETHERM is part of the Chemical Database Service (CDS) based at the Daresbury Laboratory. It provides information on the thermophysical properties of compounds and compound mixtures. It includes phase equilibrium data, excess properties, calorific properties, interfacial properties, transport properties, pressure volume temperature (PVT) data, electrolyte data, azeotropic data, identification of substances and bibliographic information. The database can be accessed over the network using a client on the user's PC or can be accessed via a web browser. The service is free to academics at UK universities. http://cds.dl.ac.uk/cds/datasets/physchem/detherm/detherm.html

Thermophysical property Data

Not Known

DatasheetCatalog.com

DatasheetCatalog.com is a free online data sheet source for electronic components and semiconductors from a wide range of component producershttp://www.datasheetcatalog.com/

Electrical Engineering

Not Known

NIST Chemistry WebBook

The NIST Chemistry WebBook, prepared by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, provides users with access to chemical and physical property data for chemicals via the internet. Searching can be conducted by formula, name, CAS Registry numbers, or via physical properties (Molecular weight, ion energies etc.) http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/

Chemistry

Not Known

Immortal Information

Immortal Information is a project which aims to identify approaches to information and knowledge management in complex engineering products. http://www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/kim

The purpose of the EthOS project is to deliver a fully operational, easily scaleable and financially viable prototype UK e-theses online service, and supporting infrastructure, that will enable students, researchers and other end-users to search a UK Database of Theses (UKDoT). Ethos is funded via the JISC Digital Repositories Programme. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_ethos

A public initiative funded by the US Department of Education, which aims to construct a global digital library of electronic theses and dissertations (ETD). Most of the participating universities are in the USA, though initiatives from other countries are also included. Approximately 200k records. http://www.ndltd.org/ or http://www.theses.org/

The aim of the ADT programme is to create a national collaborative distributed database of digitised theses build a comprehensive metadata repository of Australian higher degree theses. http://adt.caul.edu.au/

multidisciplinary

Not Known
(Scheduled to be OAI-PMH & SRU compliant by mid 2005 - Not available as of August 05)

The Digital Library of MIT Theses is a collection of selected MIT masters and doctoral theses available online. While not a complete collection of MIT theses, it includes theses that were scanned by Document Services in the past few years, for printing or electronic delivery to requesters. The range of years represented in the collection is 1888 to present. (>9000 records) http://theses.mit.edu/

The JORUM repository will offer a searchable repository of learning and teaching resources for use by academic and support staff in the UK. JORUM uses a repository system called intraLibrary, produced by Intrallect Ltd. The service is due for launch in August 05 and currently contains over 1500 objects. JORUM is gathering materials from X4L phase 1 – 800 objects, and phase 2 – 600 objects, from HE Academy Subject Centres, JISC Digital Learning initiatives, etc. Contributors complete very basic metadata, cataloguers enhance metadata, then reviewers add reviews. The Connect L&T Portal will be the end-user interface to JORUM content.http://www.jorum.ac.uk/

A beta OAI-PMH interface is available (Nov 05). Sets are currently not supported although it is anticipated that they will be provided during 2006. A SRW/SRU interface is planned.

DLNET was a project funded by the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) initiative to develop a repository to archive Learning Objects that support pedagogy and learning in Engineering and Technology. DLNET ended in June 2003. As of June 03 the collection comprised of around 1200 learning objects (approx 600 archived at DLNET and 600 Metadata records to object held at other sites) http://www.dlnet.vt.edu/

The SMETE Open Federation was formed to promote the teaching and learning of
science, mathematics, engineering and technology at all levels. It is possible to search SMETE
for learning resources which searches across a number SMETE partner organisation resources
(including NEEDS, Computer Science teaching center Math Forum etc ). SMETE receives funding via
NSF.http://www.smete.org/

NEEDS is a US digital library of learning resources for engineering
education. NEEDS provides web-based access to a database of learning resources where the user
can search for, locate, download, and comment on resources to aid their learning or teaching
process.http://www.needs.org/

MERLOT is a collection of free online teaching and learning materials on the Web. Subject areas covered are multidisciplinary but over 1500 resources are listed in the area of science and technology. The service is US based and is aimed at students and lecturers in higher education. Materials are peer reviewed and include e.g. tutorials, simulations, tests, animations and lectures. Merlot also has a Federated search service which allows cross searching of MERLOT, EdNA Online and Ariadne.
http://www.merlot.org/

multidisciplinary

Not Known

Education Network Australia
(EdNA)

EdNA Online is a Website pointing to thousands of resources identified and contributed by Australian educators. It is a network aimed at the Australian education community (government and non- government schooling systems, vocational education and training, adult community education and higher education). The EdNA collection comprises of over 20,000 quality assured education and training resources at all levels.http://www.edna.edu.au/

[Note the advanced search allows searching of a range of sources including MERLOT, GEM, etc, There are sections on harvesting and XML searching/browsing.]

multidisciplinary

Not Known

National Learning Network (NLN) - Materials

The National Learning Network is an initiative set up by the UK government to support and develop the use of Information and Learning Technology (ILT) in the further education (FE) sector in England. The NLN Web site has been designed to assist in the dissemination of information regarding the activities surrounding this initiative. A number of related strands to the project will focus on Internet connection for FE institutions, the development of ILT materials and staff development activities. The site includes links to reports, news and events, resources, support and contacts. After registration it is possible to preview and download the wide range of e-learning materials commissioned by the NLN for the UK post-16 sector.http://www.nln.ac.uk/materials/

multidisciplinary

Not Known

Campus Alberta Repository of Educational Objects
(CAREO)

CAREO is a canadian multidisciplinary educational object repository. The repository contains over 4000 [4124 on 28/7/05] objects but relatively few (15) are classified in the engineering section.
http://www.careo.org/

multidisciplinary

Not Known

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Courseware (MIT OCW)

MIT's OpenCourseWare is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT's mission to advance knowledge and education.http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/

Interoperability is 'in progress'. CWSpace is a project which is currently investigating archiving MIT OpenCourseWare course materials using DSpace.

multidisciplinary

No
(In development)

YHLearning Repository
(formerly HLSI)

The YHLearning Repository (developed from the HLSI project) is an online repository of learning materials from key stage 4 to HE level. The HLSI project initially focused on the subject areas of engineering and manufacturing but it has now been expanded to cover all subject areas. Login is required to gain access to the repository. http://www.yhlearning.org.uk/

multidisciplinary

Not Known

Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre Resource Database

The Engineering Subject Centre Resource Database is a searchable catalogue of over 1000 learning and teaching resources for engineering academics. It contains information for lecturers about learning and teaching (e.g. case studies, information about educational theory and practice). The database is updated constantly with new content, and existing content is reviewed regularly to maintain quality.http://www.engsc.ac.uk/er/resources/index.asp

LAMS creates digital lesson plans that can be run online and shared among teachers. The LAMS Community site allows teachers to share and adapt digital lesson plans. A public sequence repository is available which includes a small number of lesson plans (the repository was launched in Oct 05). Sequence metadata may be viewed although users must be registered before sequences can be downloaded.
http://lamscommunity.org/lamscentral/

NIX provides an entry point to six NASA center photographic databases (Langley, Lewis, Ames, Dryden, Goddard and Johnson). NIX is currently being expanded to include additional photos from the remaining centers.http://nix.nasa.gov/

The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities. Approximately 60 videos are classified in the area of engineering.http://www.open-video.org/

The PIX collection consists of thousands of renewable energy and energy efficiency technology photographs. The collection may be searched via keyword or browsed by subject category. The collection was developed and is maintained for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.http://www.nrel.gov/data/pix/

multidisciplinary

None Known

Institution of Civil Engineering (ICE) Image Gallery

The ICE Image Gallery contains a number of historical civil engineering images. The web site provides a selection of images as an example of the type of material available. Contacts are given to seek copyright and usage information.http://www.ice.org.uk/knowledge/library_image_gallery.asp

Civil Engineering

None Known

Structural Engineering Slide Library

The Structural Engineering Slide Library was collected over the period 1950 through 1980 by Prof Godden of the University of California, Berkeley. It was developed as a visual resource for illustrating structural systems in undergraduate courses in structural analysis and design. The Library consists of over 550 images in nine slide sets (Beam Structures, Arch Structures, Cable and Suspension Structures, Truss Structures, Domes and Shells, Columns, Rigid Frames, Grids and Slabs, Structures Under Construction, The Structures of Leonhardt, Andrä and Partners, Earthquake Engineering). For use by non-profit agencies no usage fees are required when credit to the collections is provided.http://nisee.berkeley.edu/godden/godden_intro.html

Structural Engineering

None Known

Dissemination of Information Technology for the Promotion of Materials Science (DoITPoMS) Micrograph Library

The DoITPoMS Micrograph Library is a searchable collection of materials micrographs intended for use in teaching and learning. Currently there are over 770 micrographs in the collection, with good coverage of metals, alloys, ceramics, polymers and composites. All micrographs have been contributed by those working in the field of materials science and are accompanied by descriptive metadata.http://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/miclib/index.php

Materials Engineering

None Known

Focusing Images for Learning and Teaching an Enriched Resource (FILTER)

The Focusing Images for Learning and Teaching an Enriched Resource (FILTER) project ended in 2003 and aimed to encourage and enable the use of digital images in learning and teaching in UK Further and Higher education. A searchable and browseable database of multidisciplinary content is available which includes a number of Engineering related images & videos.http://www.filter.ac.uk/

multidisciplinary

None Known

CALVisual for Construction Image Archive.

The CALVisual Image Archive was produced as part of the TLTP3 funded CALVisual project which ended in 2000. The project's main aim was to make effective use of image archives as teaching, learning and assessment instruments. Images in the archive are grouped together in sections and each set of images can be downloaded as a zip file. http://www.engsc.ac.uk/resources/calvisual/

Construction Engineering

None Known

Virginia Tech Imagebase

Imagebase is a browsable/searchable database of images and related information (metadata). Subject coverage is not entirely clear but seems to cover Civil War history & art history from the virginia tech special collections. ImageBase has over 13,000 images (as of Aug. 1998) [Not relevant to engineering but is included as an example of a image database which has metadata available via OAI-PMH]http://imagebase.lib.vt.edu/index.phphttp://uther.dlib.vt.edu:8080/oai cat/servlet/OAIHandler

The e3an database contains around 1400 assessment questions for use by electrical and electronic engineering academics. The database is not available for searching online - only via request and download. The E3an project ended in May 2003.
http://www.e3an.ac.uk/

Aeronautical Research Council (ARC) Technical Reports. ARC was the principal UK agency investigating aeronautical issues which existed between 1909-1979. The ARC archive is a database of over 3000 historically significant full text reports. http://aerade.cranfield.ac.uk/reports.html

The MAGiC project aimed to enhance awareness, access and use of key collections of technical reports for the benefit of the UK engineering community. An important outcome of the project was the METReS demonstrator - a prototype National Reports Catalogue. The Magic project ended in Oct 2002.http://www.magic.ac.uk/http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/metres/

Flickr is an informal photo sharing service which has a range of additional features. Descriptive Metadata can be added to photos, they can be organised into sets, and there are tools to allow users to create 'group' photo places where several people can share photos in one location. It is possible to specify who has access to the photos deposited - they can be open to the entire community or restricted to a select group of users. Images can be browsed by the category which they have been 'tagged' and images can be viewed by subclusters (e.g. see the Engineering subset)http://www.flickr.com/

The LionShare project aims to facilitate legitimate file-sharing among institutions around the world through the use of authenticated Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking. LionShare technology (which is currently under development) will provide tools for the exchange of academic, personal and work-related materials on an officially sanctioned and secure P2P network among participating groups and institutions around the world.http://lionshare.its.psu.edu/main/

DOAJ is a service that provides access to quality controlled Open Access Journals. The Directory aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use an appropriate quality control system. The directory indexes all Journals at the journal title level but an unknown proportion of journals are also indexed at the article level making it possible to search for articles (these are marked in the listing of journal titles as 'DOAJ Content')
http://www.doaj.org/

Currently 6 Open access journals covering the area of petroleum engineering namely: petrophysics, production geology, drilling, production, reservoir engineering, and petroleum management and economics.http://petroleumjournalsonline.com/

Hindawi Publishing Corporation is a commercial publisher of STM (Science, Technology, and Medicine) literature. The company publishes 10 Open Access journals of relevance to engineering.http://hindawi.com/

[Note: As noted elsewhere the purpose of this listing is not to provide a comprehensive worldwide list of repositories but is an attempt to list particularly significant repositories for the UK HE engineering community. For this reason we have included a brief summary of the position with respect to UK HE institutional repositories, some individual examples of institutional and departmental repositories, and a small number of other particularly substantive repositories. For a more complete listing see the Institution Archives Registry. ]

UK HE institutions Repositories

Around 40 UK HE institutions have working demonstrators of OAI compliant institutional repositories. There are also several consortia partnerships. SHERPA is coordinating the implementation of institutional repositories across a number of institutions (approx 20) in the UK. See IAR for full & growing list of repositories. A subset of current UK institutional repositories includes:

DSpace is a digital repository created to capture, distribute and preserve the intellectual output of MIT. DSpace provides stable long-term storage needed to house the digital products of MIT faculty and researchers, including preprints, technical reports, working papers, conference papers, images, and more.(>10k records)https://dspace.mit.edu/

ePrints-UK is a Project (not a service) which provides access to resources from around 30 institutional repositories in the United Kingdom. Subject coverage is broad and a range of resource types (e.g. journal articles, thesis, technical reports) are covered. Some other sources such as Biomed Central are also included. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=fairsynthesis_eprintsuk

The ARROW project aims to develop and test an Australian national resource discovery service using metadata harvested from Australian institutional repositories. The current incarnation of the service allows searching and browsing via the Australian Standard Research Classification (ASRC). (>7k records)
Home: http://www.arrow.edu.au/
Search: http://search.arrow.edu.au/

Cream of Science is an aggregated repository for leading Dutch science and research. The web site has listed the names of 206 top Dutch academics, providing worldwide access to their 41,000 publications. About 60% of these (25,000) can be accessed full text. No details of an OAI-PMH interface to the entire aggregation is obvious but there are links to the individual institutional repositories.http://www.creamofscience.org/

3.1.3 Via Primary Functionality

arXiv.org is a fully automated e-print archive service for research papers - the full text of included papers is freely available. Areas covered include physics and related disciplines, mathematics and computer science.
http://arXiv.org/

Aggregates metadata from around 50 data providers in the subject areas of Engineering, Computer science, and Physics. The aggregation has not been reharvested since mid 2004 (Aug 05).http://g118.grainger.uiuc.edu/engroai/

3.2. Available/potential Engineering Metadata Repository sources

Important Note: With respect to engineering metadata repository sources, there is clearly a huge number of potential sources offering a wide variety of different types of content, some of which are freely available and others which are available only on a commercial/subscription basis (i.e. closed access metadata repositories). For the purposes of this list we have elected not to include closed access commercially produced repositories which do not currently allow free searching (such as various commercially available full-text and Abstract & Indexing services). Many of these, such as ScienceDirect, Ei Compendex, Inspec, Technology Research Index, Web of Science, etc., are recognised as being extremely important, in terms of information provision, for the engineering community. However, the primary purpose of this list is to help inform the development of a Pilot Engineering Repository Xsearch service which does not require authentication (i.e. which cross-searches only freely available data or metadata). For information about such commercially available services, see: MacLeod and Corlett (2005).

The CISTI Resource Collection includes: over 50,000 different serial titles, over 600,000 books and conference proceedings, 2 million technical reports, and journals indexed in scientific databases. Coverage is worldwide and current with around 500 new items being added per day.http://cisti-icist.nrc- cnrc.gc.ca/cisti_e.shtml

The Energy Citations Database is produced by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). It contains bibliographic records for energy and energy-related scientific and technical information from the DOE and its predecessor agencies. It contains citations to report literature, conference papers, journal articles, books, dissertations, and patents. Some of the more recent resources/documents are available in full text.http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/

NTIS is the official source for U.S. scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information. NTIS includes a searchable database of bibliographic references to items added to the database since 1990. Items available include technical reports, CD-ROMs, data files and videotapes. Some reports are available full text.http://www.ntis.gov/search/index.asp

Science, Technology, Engineering

No
(contacted 2003)

GrayLIT Network

The GrayLIT Network provides access to the gray literature of U.S. Federal Agencies. It taps into the search engines of distributed gray literature collections, enabling the user to find information without first having to know the sponsoring agency. Databases currently searchable include:

The USPTO Web Patent Database includes a searchable (by keyword and patent number) database of full text US patents from 1976 with links to cited reference patents. Patent applications from March 2001 can also be searched. Patents issued from 1790 through to 1975 can be searched only by patent number and current US classifications.http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html

Patents

Not known

esp@cenet

esp@cenet is a distributed Internet patent service. This service has a worldwide patent database containing over 30 million documents together with databases of documents from Japan, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the European Patent Office and from 19 European countries including Great Britain.

The IHS Specs & Standards service provides access to more than 1 Million standards documents from over 370 Standards Developing Organizations along with 350,000 U.S. military standardization documents. Access to metadata is currently under negotiation.http://engineers.ihs.com/standards/specs-standards/index.jsp

Standards

No
(SRU/SRW interface is under development (Aug05))

ISO Catalogue

ISO's (International Organization for Standardization) portfolio of standards is listed in the ISO Catalogue

DODISS lists unclassified federal and military specifications, standards, and related standardisation documents, and those non-government standards adopted for DoD use. Full text documents are available in PDF.

3.2.2 Via Coverage

The IoP electronic Journals database allows free full text searching of the IoP electronic journals archive back to 1874. The archive includes over 172,000 articles. The search result provides an abstract with the full text article available (in PDF) to users from subscribing institutions.http://www.iop.org/EJ/S/3/542/search

The EEVL Ejournal Search Engine (EESE) provides access to the full text of over 250 freely available full text ejournals in Engineering, Mathematics and Computing. In order to be included, ejournals must be free, full text (or offer most of their content as full text) and available without registration. Articles in PDF, which require an Adobe Acrobat reader (downloadable from the Adobe Website) and Postscript format are also includedhttp://www.eevl.ac.uk/eese/

Engineering, Mathematics, Computing

Yes
(closed access Z39.50)

RAM

Recent Advances in Manufacturing (RAM) is a database of bibliographic information for manufacturing and related areas. It covers items in well over 500 niche and mainstream journals and magazines, and also details of books, videos and conference proceedings. RAM covers all aspects of manufacturing and research.http://www.eevl.ac.uk/ram/

Manufacturing

Yes
(closed access Z39.50)

Inderscience Journals

Inderscience is a publisher of high quality peer-reviewed international journals in the fields of engineering and technology, and management and business administration. The Inderscience database contains details of articles in these fields, with significant coverage in the areas of automotive engineering/management; ICT; product development (including materials and manufacturing); energy, environment and sustainable development; technology management; and entrepreneurship.http://www.inderscience.com/

Engineering, Technology, Management

Yes
(Via OAI-PMH -closed access)

JSTOR

JSTOR, the online archive of scholarly journals, provides extensive back-runs of journals, predominantly in the Arts and social sciences, but also with coverage in science, engineering and mathematics. Users can search and browse the full-text of the journals, and articles can be read online, or downloaded and printed. JSTOR is available to academic and research institutions via site-licences. JSTOR offers both multidisciplinary and discipline-specific collections. The General Science Collection contains seven titles including Science, Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, and Proceedings: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. JSTOR's Mathematics & Statistics Collection contains over thirty titles.

The ASCE Research Library is a comprehensive online tool for locating articles of interest across all disciplines of civil engineering. The Research Library provides access to more than 18,500 full-text papers from ASCE Journals and Proceedings published. This service includes the more recent parts of the CE Database (see above)

TRIS Online provides a searchable database of over 420,000 bibliographic records covering transportation research published in books, journal articles, technical reports and other media coverage of Federal, state, local and association publications. It gives coverage of the literature from the 1960s to the present, with some coverage of prior years. There are selected links to full text or sources of full text, and links to the ITRD database for further coverage of international transportation.http://trisonline.bts.gov/search.cfm

Transportation

None Known
(contacted 2003 -No Response)

SPIE Digital Library

The SPIE (International Society for Optical Engineering) Digital Library includes more than 120,000 technical papers from SPIE journals and conference proceedings. It is possible to search or browse the database. Non subscribers can view the bibliographic information and abstracts free of charge.http://www.spiedl.org/

Optical Engineering

Not known

IEEE Xplore

IEEE Xplore provides access to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers content. Xplore contains documents from IEEE journals, transactions, magazines, letters, conference proceedings and standards, as well as IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) publications. Metadata is freely searchable although access to the full text is via subscription or online article purchase.http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/dynhome.jsp

Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Not known

Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) eLibrary

The SPE eLibrary is a repository of the technical papers presented at SPE-sponsored conferences since the late 1950s and in SPE's technical journals since the early 1950s. The eLibrary currently offers access to more than 40,000 technical documents covering the evolution of technology in drilling, completion, exploration, production, facilities, reservoir simulation, formation evaluation, safety and environmental protection, risk management, etchttp://www.spe.org/elibrary/app/search.do

The International Journal of IStructE (The Institution of Structural Engineers) archive provides access to the main articles from 1923 to present. Full-text access for IStructE members and journal subscribers. Non-members can download articles on a pay-per-view basis and metadata is freely available. A pay-per-view service expected to start at end of January 2006. Google in process of indexing the archive.http://www.istructe.org.uk/thestructuralengineer/

Structural Engineering

Not known

Professional Engineering Publishing

Professional Engineering Publishing is the publishing arm of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). Seventeen journal titles (including 15 sections of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers) can be search from:
http://www.catchword.com/pep/search.htm

The Copper Development Association provides access to its Copper Data Center database free of charge via CSA Illumina. It is a bibliographic database of the world's literature on copper, copper alloys and copper technology since 1965. Over 65,000 documents have been indexed into this database.

Scitation is the re-launch of the Online Journal Publishing Service (OJPS).

Scitation allows access to more than 100 journals from AIP, ASCE, ASME, SPIE, The Electrochemical Society, the IEE, IEEE Computer Society, The Institution of Electrical Engineers and other prestigious science and engineering societies. http://scitation.aip.org/

Science & Engineering

Not known

Shrivenham Index

This is an index to defence journal literature - produced by indexing significant articles from the current defence, management, engineering and applied science journals holdings of the Library at Cranfield University's Shrivenham Campus.

JST English Articles of Science and Technology (J-EAST) database gives bibliographic records of the latest research results in Japan. J-EAST contains English citations and abstracts for documents published in Japan covering all fields of science, technology, and medicine. Sources include about 3,000 journals and serials, conference proceedings, technical reports.
http://j-east.tokyo.jst.go.jp/http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/

Science & Technology

Not known

NIOSH Resource Database

NIOSHTIC-2 is a bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and other communication products supported in whole or in part by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

The ICE's Virtual Library gives access to the largest repository of full text civil engineering papers in the world. Searching is free and there are pay per view and subscription options for access to the full text. http://www.iceknowledge.com/

Civil Engineering

Not known

IChemE Journal Archive

The Institution of Chemical Engineers has digitized its journal archive back to 1923. The archive, in PDF format, is fully searchable by volume and author, and by keyword across the full text of every article. Single articles can be purchased online for £10 +Vat.

ConnectSciences provides free access to a full range of scientific and technical information resources and services, especially in French. The Article Catalog provides access to more than 9,8 million article references held in INIST collections.

QUAKELINE® is a bibliographic database produced by the MCEER Information Service. It covers earthquakes, earthquake engineering, natural hazard mitigation, and related topics. It includes records for various publication types, such as journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, CD-ROMs, slides and videos. The database currently provides access to over 41,500 records. The MCEER Information Service has access to all documents cited in the database.

Copac is a union catalogue, giving access to the merged online catalogues of members of the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL). There are some 30 million records on Copac representing the merged holdings of 26 CURL member institutions, including the British Library & National Library of Scotland, plus special collections from a small number of non-CURL libraries.http://copac.ac.uk/about.html

Multidisciplinary

Yes
( Z39.50)

Archives Hub

A national gateway to descriptions of archives in UK universities and colleges.

EEVL, the Internet guide to Engineering, Mathematics and Computing is a freely available service which provides access to selected, high quality Internet information for students, academics, researchers and professionals. The database contains descriptions of over 11,000 quality assessed resources.http://www.eevl.ac.uk/

The National Science Digital Library provides users the ability to explore the disciplines of science, engineering, mathematics and technology at all levels. It serves as an aggregator of over 100 original repositories, including a number of relevance to engineering. Some repositories aggregated by the NSDL are mentioned separately in other sections of this list.

INFOMINE is a virtual library of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. It contains useful Internet resources such as databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles, directories of researchers, and many other types of informationhttp://infomine.ucr.edu/

OneStep Industry News is a freely available service which provides access to the latest news items from a selection of engineering, mathematics and computing industry news services. http://www.eevl.ac.uk/onestepnews/

Engineering, Mathematics, Computing

Yes
(closed access Z39.50)

OneStep Jobs

OneStep Industry Jobs is a freely available service which provides access to the latest job vacancies from a selection of engineering, mathematics and computing recruitment/job services.http://www.eevl.ac.uk/onestepjobs/

Engineering, Mathematics, Computing

Yes
(closed access Z39.50)

PSIgate

PSIgate is a free service that offers access to high quality Web resources in the physical sciences; astronomy, chemistry, earth sciences, materials sciences, physics, and science history and policy.http://www.psigate.ac.uk/

Z39.50
host : www.spp.psigate.ac.uk
port : 2102
database : zpsigate

Physical Sciences

Yes
( Z39.50)

Australasian Virtual
Engineering Library
(AVEL)

AVEL provides a portal to information about sustainable systems. Services provided include a catalogue of over four thousand web resources relating to sustainable development, emerging topics in engineering and foundation topics in engineering. No longer being updated? http://avel.edu.au/

3.2.4 Miscellaneous

Safari Bookshelf is an electronic reference library for programmers and IT professionals. Safari enables you to search the electronic versions of over 1,300 books from a number of publishers including O'Reilly and Pearson.http://safari.oreilly.com/